It’s about time consumers had a bit of good news. Recent petitions to the FDA, guardians of all that is food and drug, have resulted in consumer victories. The Center for Food Safety reports two major wins from consumer action. Stop and pat yourself on the back for filling out yet another online petition. Sometimes it really does make a difference. It’s ok to be resigned and cynical, but keep sending those petitions in and sharing them with your friends.

At the Center for Food Safety, we often get asked what happens after people sign our petitions, and if their actions really make any difference. The answer is that a lot happens after you sign our petitions, and YES, your actions make all the difference.

Arsenic Removed From Chicken Feed

Here’s a perfect example from just last week. Remember earlier this year when we asked you to join us in pushing the FDA to respond to our lawsuit and finally remove arsenic from chicken feed? Well, thanks to the thousands of you who stood with us, the FDA has finally responded to our lawsuit—AND WE WON!

Together we forced FDA to remove arsenic ingredients in animal feed used for our nation’s chickens, turkeys and hogs. Thanks to our lawsuit and your support, 98 of the 101 drug approvals for arsenic-based animal drugs will be withdrawn. This is a huge victory for animal welfare and public health—and your action on this issue helped secure this victory.

Monsanto Protection Act Repealed

Last month we celebrated another huge victory as our year-long fight against the “Monsanto Protection Act” finally ended in victory! Thanks to the nearly half a million emails and phone calls from CFS members like you, and CFS’s continued presence in the halls of Congress, the Senate stripped the biotech rider from the short-term spending bill and both long-term appropriations bills. As of September 30th, the Monsanto Protection Act has officially expired!

It can seem like a lonely place to stand going up against corporate power and corrupt, paid for politicians. But our collective actions do make a difference. What can we do next?

We’ve got big plans for the next year—including stopping pesticides toxic to bees and harmful to humans, stopping the introduction of Dow Chemical’s new “Agent Orange” GE crops, protecting states’ rights to pass laws to label and regulate GE foods and crops, and finally passing mandatory GE labeling legislation—but we need your help to do it.

Together with you, CFS takes on the big food and chemical companies like Dow and Monsanto, lax government agencies, and rogue members of Congress. And together, we win.